Haggerty On Toucher & Rich: A Good Start For The Bruins

Brad Marchand #63 of the Boston Bruins is congratulated by teammates after scoring a goal in the first period against the Winnipeg Jets. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

The NHL season is off and running and the Bruins have won their first two games, beating the Rangers 3-1 and the Jets 2-1 in a shootout.

Comcast SportsNet’s Joe Haggerty joined 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher & Rich to discuss the start to the Bruins season, the goalies and power play.

In their second game this season the Bruins had many missed opportunities against the Winnipeg Jets. In a shortened season where teams will play a large number of games in a short amount of time will these frustrating games become a theme?

“Yeah, they hit like five posts, they had a ton of chances because the Winnipeg defense isn’t that good. Frankly, there’s going to be a lot of mistakes made out there where teams are going to have offensive opportunities and the Bruins are going to have their chances. They couldn’t cash in on the power play, their 0 for nine now on the season on that. There’s going to be some themes like that especially in the early going I think because teams aren’t quite as sharp as their going to be defensively and teams aren’t going to be able to finish like they normally would offensively.”

Haggerty mentioned that the B’s have struggled so far on the power play, something that had been a problem the past few years. Should fans settle in for another season where the power play is an issue for this team?

“They have changed their philosophy a little bit. It’s running through Seguin on that first power play team where he’s in that old Marc Savard role at the half wall and he’s the quarterback of the power play and everything is flowing through him. I like that setup, I think it’s the best way to go and I like the fact that they have Krejci on one of the points opposite Chara. That’s something they have never done before and it allows them to setup Chara for one timers, he’ll get nice passes from Krejci on the other side.”

The also touched on Tuukka Rask handling the starting duties in net. Will backup Anton Khudobin be able to carry this team when Rask needs rest?